This invention pertains to an improved child-resistant container closure and to the elements thereof.
In particular, this invention pertains to such a closure useful with a storage receptacle for medicines, such as those in pill, tablet or capsule form, and other chemical substances potentially harmful to children, which closure is readily openable by an adult, but which may be opened either inadvertently or otherwise only with great difficulty by a child.
Among such closures previously proposed, that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,850,326 Ryles is considered pertinent as a background teaching with respect to the present invention.
The closure disclosed in the Ryles patent includes a cap or closure member with a lip overlying the rim surrounding an opening in the container. At one location on that rim, a slot 12 (as best seen in FIGS. 3 and 11) is provided so that the outer periphery of the rim may be deformed inwardly by finger pressure, thus rendering the underside of the overlying lip of the cap accessible for upward opening pressure on the cap member. The disclosure of the above-referenced Ryles patent suggests that in the absence of directional indicia, the significance of which would be perceived only by an adult, a person, particularly a child, would not be led to perform the necessary finger actuation of inwardly deforming the rim at the point of slot 12 and then upwardly actuating the overlying lip of the cap to remove the cap from the container opening.
Applicant's assignee, as a licensee under the above-identified Ryles patent, has tested containers with closures of the type disclosed there. Through such testing and related experience, Applicant has determined that a closure of the type disclosed in the Ryles patent is not as resistant, to opening by a child, as may be required, even though it is superior in many respects to other prior closure designs intended to be child-resistant. A more child-resistant closure is, therefore, highly desirable and indeed is required in the U.S., in order to comply with the U.S. Poison Prevention and Packaging Act of 1970.
Accordingly, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a child-resistant closure improved with respect to possible opening of the container by a child.
In particular, it is an object of this invention to provide a closure openable generally in the manner disclosed in the above-referenced Ryles patent, but improved with respect to possible opening by a child, so that it complies with the U.S. Poison Prevention and Packaging Act of 1970.